Monte Melkonian

Monte Melkonian (25 November 1957-12 June 1993) was a Lieutenant-Colonel of Armenia during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, formerly a soldier of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) terrorist group during the Lebanese Civil War.

Biography
Monte Melkonian was born on 25 November 1957 in Visalia, California, in the United States to a family of Armenian descent. Melkonian was unaware of his descent and was an all-American, a member of the Boy Scouts and a Little League baseball player. In 1969 his family went on a year-long trip to Europe and he learned Spanish in Spain, and in one class, he was unable to answer his teacher's question about where his ancestors were from. His interest in his background was sparked, and he traveled to Merzifon in Turkey to visit the hometown of his ancestors. It had a population of 23,475 people, but was almost completely devoid of the 17,000 Armenians that lived there before the Armenian Genocide during World War I. He met one Armenian family of three, and he found out that they survived only because they gave up the other Armenians living in the town to the Ottoman Empire. He traveled the world, teaching English in Japan at the age of 15 and learning new cultures, philosophies, and languages in his trips to places like Vietnam. In 1978, while studying at the University of California in Berkely, he arranged an exhibition of Armenian artifacts. In the spring of that year, he traveled to Iran, where he taught English and helped to overthrow the Shah. He organized a teacher's strike in Tehran, and when he headed to Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdish partisans made a big impact on him. In the fall of 1978 he defended the Armenian quarter of Beirut, Lebanon against the Christian Phalangists during the Lebanese Civil War, and he learned to speak Armenian fluently. He also spoke English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Arabic, Italian, Turkish, Persian, and Kurdish. In 1980, he was inducted into the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and he took part in the hostage-taking of the Turkish embassy in Paris, France in the Van Operation of 24 September 1981. After a split between Hagop Hagopian and other ASALA members, he went underground in Lebanon and later in France. In November 1985 he was arrested for possessing falsified papers and a handgun, and he was released in 1989, when he headed to South Yemen.

In 1990, he left Yemen for newly-independent Armenia, and he decided to fight against Azerbaijan to defend Karabakh from the Azerbaijanis. Azerbaijan wanted to secure their cores during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and from 12 September 1991 he fought the Azerbaijanis in Shahumian. In April 1993 he planned the capture of Kalbajar in Azerbaijan, and he later fought in the Battle of Aghdam. During the battle, he was killed in the abandoned village of Merzili in Azerbaijan on 12 June 1993. He died in the arms of his closest comrades and he was buried with full honors in the Yerablur Military Cemetery of Yerevan on 19 June 1993. 25,000 people filed past his open casket to pay their respects, and he was awarded with the title of "National Hero of Armenia" after his death.